RAFAEL NADAL has claimed that the only regret of his recent tennis performances has been his failure to rival Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open.

Rafael Nadal stormed his way through to the final at the Australian Open in January without dropping a set, but found his hopes of winning an 18th Grand Slam title quickly diminish as Novak Djokovic won in straight sets.

That victory gave the Serbian his third consecutive Grand Slam title after last year’s Wimbledon and US Open triumphs.

Nadal has once again spoken out about the demoralising defeat and revealed that his only regret is that he wasn’t able to give his rival a good game.

“The tournament in Australia was amazing considering all these things, the only regret is that I could not compete at my best in the final but I found a great Djokovic,” Nadal told ESPN this week.